Harry.

In an effort to re-immerse myself in J.K. Rowling's magical world, I saw the Order of the Phoenix last night and re-read the Half Blood Prince yesterday.

Onscreen:
The movie screening was fantastic. There was an enthusiastic and rowdy audience that cheered every heroic move, from Harry telling off Umbridge (played perfectly by Imelda Staunton) to Sirius beating up Lucius to Fred and George's pranks. I really enjoyed this film the most of all the others except maybe #3. I thought it flowed well and had its own spirit, but was a perfect compliment to the book, if it did emphasize the humorous over the dark elements just ever so slightly.

Onpage:
That extra bit of amusement was fine because earlier in the day I felt like my life had been destroyed with the loss of Dumbledore. JKR handles the issue of death so much better than most "sophisticated" authors--in a frank, straightforward, unsentimentalized and unsymbolic way. Which is of course, how she handles friendship and love and other humanish things in her books. Wherein lies her real genius, which is that beyond the magical plots and tangled webs, her books aren't about wizards at all. They're about us. And that's just one of the many reasons why I think she's the greatest living author.

More HP countdown reading:
The Harry Generation (which I am definitely smack in the demographic for)
Will He "Get It?" (Please no, please no)

Ciao for now.